Many of us live in mediocrity. The fear of failing cripples us. So we make excuses for ourselves. We hide behind the famous “I’m not ready!” and “that’s not for me”

Success requires failure (it’s how we learn) but it also requires smart failing. Smart failing is failing in service of learning.

In smart failing, you set a goal, prep yourself as best as you can and start trying. As you try, you’ll fail. Be okay with that knowing that your failures are a crucial part of the learning journey […]

There’s a common misconception that Get Ys don’t like hard work and it’s not true.

Gen Ys idolise people like Mark Cuban who routinely stayed up until 2 in the morning when he was first starting his business, Jeff Bezos who worked 12 hour days, 7 days a week to launch Amazon and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson who wakes up at 4am everyday to work out.

Like their idols, Gen Ys want to work hard.

The difference between Gen Ys and the generations before them is their desire for meaningful work. They want to labour for something they believe in. They want […]

Standardised testing forced us into believing we could score a 100% in every subject if only we studied hard enough.

It’s a notion we have carried into our adult life. We subscribe to the idea that the job we do has a list of competencies and we need to score a 100% in every one of them to be successful.

This line of thinking compels us to focus purely on our weaknesses and ignores our strengths. While it’s important to know our weaknesses the reality is; none of us are a 100% at everything. While the perfect score might have been […]

None of us are a 100% at everything Navin Muruga
2017-06-16T06:33:07+00:00

‘The 80/20 Principle’ by Richard Koch is a book with a simple yet powerful piece of wisdom. Koch introduces the idea that just 20% of our effort determines 80% of our output. He’s not the first; the 80/20 Principle has been around for a while and is also known as the Pareto’s Principle or The Law of The Vital Few.

It’s an attractive concept that promises to free up our time and accelerate our growth. The 80/20 principle suggests we start asking ourselves, “What is the 20% of my work that delivers 80% of my results?

Businesses exist to either solve a problem or create value for their customers. The questions to ask are,

“Who are we serving?” and “What problem are we solving / value are we creating?”

Those answers combined, form a purpose statement. Here’s how it might sound.

Empowering ___(customers) __ to __(solve problem)__

OR

Creating __(value)__ for __(customers)__

A powerful purpose statement inspires. It makes people want to work harder for you, pay more for your product and then keep coming back for more. It needs bravado. People are inspired by businesses that set out to solve big meaningful problems or create game changing customer value.